"Goodnight, Mahiru-san."
The two quickly reached their front doors. Sora gave a simple greeting, then opened his door to go home.
"...Goodnight."
Mahiru's long eyelashes fluttered gently. After hesitating for a second, she finally parted her pink lips and whispered a goodnight.
Angel-sama's mood was extremely subtle.
From the time she could remember until today, her parents had never once said goodnight to her. And now, she was actually exchanging goodnights with a boy... but unexpectedly, she didn't seem to hate it.
"I'll message Anna first..."
Returning home, Sora took out his phone and first sent a message to Anna, stating he had arrived home safely. Then, he headed straight to the bathroom to take a shower.
After washing up, Sora returned to his room with a look of anticipation.
This afternoon, purifying the magic power for Kuroneko and Elf netted him two hundred experience points, exactly enough to level up his [Game Design] skill to LV3.
If he only relied on his own hard work to grind experience, he would at most gain a few dozen experience points a day, not nearly as easy as now.
"As expected, the correct way to use the game panel is to grind Witches..." Sora sighed internally while silently chanting, "Confirm level up."
As his level increased, various skills and experiences quietly surged into Sora's mind.
After resting for a moment, Sora quietly opened his eyes, his expression invigorated.
"Finally, I can officially start creating games."
It had been several months since he awakened the memories of his past life. Besides burying his head in grinding abilities, Sora had naturally gathered and analyzed the similarities and differences between the two worlds.
As everyone knows, the world is just one giant makeshift stage. At many critical junctures, even a small accident can completely alter the course of history.
For example, when the Wuchang Uprising broke out, Mr. Sun Yat-sen was washing dishes in a restaurant in the United States. If a customer hadn't coincidentally left behind a newspaper, and if that newspaper hadn't coincidentally reported on the uprising, Mr. Sun, unable to return to his country immediately, would certainly have missed the presidency...
Getting back to the main point.
The two worlds were already different. Many games that were well-known in his past life didn't exist here, and their creators were nowhere to be found. Therefore, he didn't need to worry about copyright issues.
"The most important things right now are time and money." Sora twirled a pencil between his fingers. "Stardew Valley contains too much content, it would be very difficult to complete in a short time. Another game is much more suitable..."
"I choose you, Plant Girls vs. Monsters!"
Sora had no intention of copying it exactly. He planned to upgrade it while retaining the core gameplay.
"One of humanity's core driving forces is lewdness."
"Compared to ordinary plants, cute Plant Girls will definitely be more popular."
Sora quickly turned on his computer and began writing the project proposal.
"Once the proposal is written, I still need to gather personnel."
Having people help share the workload is very important. Insisting on completing it all by himself would be the act of a fool making things unnecessarily hard for himself.
"I can have Sagiri handle designing the chibi-style Plant Girls."
"If I remember correctly, Kuroneko seems to have basic programming skills?"
"Anna... can just handle eating and drinking."
"..."
Meanwhile.
Next door.
Mahiru stepped into the entryway. She first checked the doors and windows to ensure there were no signs of intrusion, then headed to the bathroom to start washing up.
Splash, splash, splash.
The showerhead turned on.
Water mist quickly billowed out.
"'Huaimin is also not sleeping...' When Dad read this piece to me back then, did he know the story behind it?"
Mahiru let her mind wander as she began to undress. The girl's skin was snow-white, dazzlingly bright under the lights, clearly an art piece meticulously sculpted by God.
"Or did Dad actually know, but just didn't want to explain that much to me?"
Mahiru stepped under the showerhead and officially began to wash up.
"Mmm... this feels so weird."
Mahiru gently furrowed her delicate eyebrows.
Having lost her sense of touch, she couldn't feel the temperature of the water falling on her body at all. She felt as if she were trapped inside an airtight casing. In short, it felt incredibly weird.
"I just need to endure it, and the side effects will disappear..."
Mahiru softly comforted herself, but as she continued washing, the girl suddenly tilted her head in confusion.
"Strange... why is my nose suddenly stuffed up?"
"Generally speaking, your nose only gets stuffed up when you catch a cold, but... Eh?!"
Not knowing what she realized, Mahiru hurriedly lifted her pretty face and looked towards the water heater nearby. The LCD screen was pitch black. Aside from the power switch, there were no temperature readings at all.
"Oh no." Mahiru's heart skipped a beat. "I was so lost in thought that I forgot to turn on the water heater before taking a shower."
When she previously lived at home, the maid auntie was responsible for filling the bathtub every day, and she only had to hop in. Now, having just moved out a few days ago, she hadn't yet formed the instinct to turn on the water heater before taking a shower.
To make matters worse, because of using the Time Stop, she had temporarily lost her sense of touch and couldn't feel the temperature of the water at all. Thus, she had been taking a cold shower the entire time.
"Stuffy nose, dizzy head... I really did catch a cold, didn't I?"
Mahiru bit her lower lip in self-reproach.
While sitting on the swing in the park, she had thought that losing her sense of touch wouldn't impact her life much, so she didn't take it to heart. Now, after careful consideration, she belatedly realized the importance of the sense of touch.
The sense of touch seems inconspicuous, but it's actually incredibly important. It just can't be actively turned on or off like sight or hearing. It's a biological instinct, so most people overlook its importance. In reality, hot and cold, pain, numbness, and itchiness—all fall under the domain of the sense of touch.
It was late April, not yet May. The nighttime temperature was actually quite low. It might be fine for a boy to take a cold shower, but clearly, Mahiru didn't have such robust physical constitution. Before she even finished her shower, the symptoms of a cold had already hit her all at once.
"But I'm only halfway through washing my hair..."
Touching her hair, which was only half-washed and still covered in suds, Mahiru bit her lower lip tightly, her gaze quickly turning resolute.
"If I turn on the water heater now, I'll have to wait several minutes for it to heat up... It's better to just finish washing my hair quickly. I've already caught a cold anyway."
"I'll finish washing as fast as possible, and then go out to take some cold medicine..."
"..."
A few minutes later.
Mahiru pushed open the bathroom door and walked out slowly. Her hair was wrapped in a towel, and her pretty face was flushed with an unnatural redness.
"Hah... haa..."
The girl's breathing was rapid and weak.
Mahiru pressed her right hand against her chest, clearly feeling her heart beating rapidly.
"Stuffy nose, dizzy head, weak body, and my heart rate is getting faster... The cold is getting worse, I must take cold medicine immediately."
While analyzing her symptoms, Mahiru gritted her teeth and went to find the household first-aid kit.
A moment later, a look of panic finally appeared on the pretty face of the usually unruffled Angel-sama:
"I-I forgot to buy medicine to keep at home..."